Macon County, its territory drawn from Houston and Marion counties in 1837, is named for Nathaniel Macon, a North Carolina states­man and U.S. senator. Oglethorpe, the county seat, is named for Georgia's founder, James Oglethorpe.

Sam Henry Rumph put Macon County in the record books and may have been responsible for Georgia's designation as "the peach state." He developed the Elberta peach in Macon County, named it for his wife, and laid a foundation for extensive commercial orchards in the area.